On May 6, an anonymous complaint lands at Divisional Kashmir Asgar Samoons office. The complaint is from an unknown AYUSH Doctors Association. The letter raised the issue of the arrest of the Medical Superintendent of the Unani Hospital, Shalteng Dr Javed Ahmad Mir for raping a woman relative of his at her house in Ajas Bandipora. Mir is since in jail and has been suspended from service. But Divisional Commissioner Asghar Samoon instituted a magisterial probe against the hospital.
Reason: The subject-line of the complaint letter read Sex racket at Unani Hospital, Shalteng. Besides the anonymous complainant in his letter had mischievously linked Mirs individual crime at his relatives house to the Unani hospital.
But in probably the fastest action to date by any senior government functionary over an anonymous complaint, Divisional Commissioner sent the letter over to the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone the same day. Lone doing the bidding of his boss, orders an enquiry there and then under Additional Deputy Commissioner Nazir Ahmad Baba.
Subject line of the enquiry order reads: Sex racket in Unani Hospital, borrowed word for word from the subject-line of the anonymous complaint. Why? The answer to this question would be better known by the Divisional Commissioner. But he should answer to more than hundred employees of the Unani hospital – which is also the Valleys biggest and to its many male and female doctors whose reputations he has attempted to tarnish, for no fault of theirs. As one of the woman doctors said, suppose Samoon had got an anonymous complaint about a sex racket in his own office, would he order an enquiry with a subject-line Sex racket in Div Coms office? Or would he first get the complainant identified, get his motives ascertained and check if he had any solid proof to back up his allegation? But in case of the Unani hospital he choose to do otherwise. He illegally dignified an anonymous complaint and acted upon it in violation of the standing government circular. In its July 2015 order General Administration Department had made it clear that no action is required to be taken on anonymous complaints, irrespective of the nature of allegations. One can legitimately now ask why did the Div Com act the way he did, thereby playing with the reputations of the scores of the hospital staff? What was it that forced him to act with great alacrity and speed? After all, it seems inexplicable that a senior government functionary will entertain an anonymous complaint against an institution but does nothing to identify the complainant, see his motivations and ask him to at least show some minimum proof for the allegations he is making. This seems bizarre.
However, the issue is not just about him and the doctors at the Unani hospital. It has a larger dimension. And which is how a senior state functionary link an individual crime to an institution and get away with it.
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